Monday, December 04, 2006

10 days to get ready for this game. Miami was playing well. The Jags were playing at about the same level, but were 1-5 on the road. Talk was about how good Joey was, the loss of Ronnie, and the Jag's receiver height advantage.

Throw out the height advantage. That's nonsense. Yeah, their receivers are tall. But, good dbs can find ways to overcome that. Miami clealry doesn't have those kind of dbs. Do you think the Patriots or Bears care if the receivers are tall?

Ronnie's absence wasn't that noticebale, as Sammie Morris filled in capably for the period where the game was in doubt.

Joey....there's another story. Most will now tell you that he's the same Joey we saw in Detroit, and some reporters even called him a "fraud." I don't go that far, but he is not as good as we had hoped. The Jags were allowing an average QB rating of about 64, which is just below Joey's overall rating. The announcers made a comment that Joey needed to play mistake-free football...but more about that in another post.

Heck, CBS moved it to the late game to "get a better matchup," but some predicted this game might be lucky to score 8 points in total.

Miami drove down the field for a 7-0 lead in a time consuming, balanced drive. The game then moved to 7-3, and Miami started to falter. Miami did very little on offense after that, and the defense kind of took a break for a time, more on that in a moment, too.

So, its 17-7 at the half, and the second half was a pathetic display of boring football. Mare missed a field goal, and then it moved to 24-7. Then, Miami got a late drive going. There are about 4 minutes left, and Miami gets down to the 24 of the Jags. Minor loses 4 yards, pass incomplete to Chambers, Minor gains 4 yards. Bam, its 4th down, and you're down by 17 points! Don't send in the field goal unit, especially after Mare honked one from the same distance earlier in the game!

Field goal unit comes in, and Miami is still down by 2 scores. Yes, Miami gets the onside kick back, but now there's about 3 1/2 minutes left...Miami moves slowly to the line time and again. Its first and goal at the 8 just before the 2 minute warning.

The crowd - what's left of it - is cheering loudly. And I'm thinking they're crazy because even if Miami does score, we're still a TD behind. "We're cheering because we'll only be down by 7!"

And of course, its turnover on downs, anyway. Sure, there's some small ray of hope that the Phins can stop the Jags on their last possession and pull out some kind of miracle, but that doesn't happen, either.

Its game over, and Miami still doesn't get to .500. And now the Patriots, Bills, Jets, and Colts remain on the schedule. 6-10 is a possibility, but I'm not optimistic.